BBC launches Blog Network & Blog Portal

Over the past weeks we’ve slowly been launching blogs across bbc.co.uk’s various “properties’ (we call them “divisions”, which is as ironic as much as it is accurate it it’s literal sense. Hey don’t even get me started – we had to create a “blog steering group” to unite the divisions…)

I’ve been involved with the project from it’s beginning – the ‘blog summit’ last year, no less – as the unofficial blogosphere and technical platform advisor.

The blogs themselves are great – but rather than a round of momentous back-slapping, the initial launch was commemorated more with a sigh of relief that we can finally be seen to be ‘getting it’. I think it was worth the wait, just.

So now you know that we have blogs – seeing as you probably didn’t know we did until now – I can now announce the fabo-tastic BBC Blog Network Portal which aggregates all of them together.

If I’ve had any involvement in this project, it’s to ensure that the blogs became a cohesive ‘Network’. I like to describe it as:

The ‘glue’ that creates this cohesion is the Blog Portal itself – an immediate + up-to-date snapshot of the conversations happening within the fabric of our divisions verticals.

Ok, if you consume blogs strictly by RSS then yes, this approach is not going to be for you. But don’t forget this is a mainstream content offering as much as it is a niche blogosphere offering and we need to keep the licence fee payers as happy as we aim to keep the bloggers happy too.

Frankie – the idea is that all “official” BBC blogs written by BBC presenters, programme teams, etc will live in the blog platform we’ve built. That’s why we had typepad accounts springing up for a while – because we didn’t have the infrastructure to do it in house — we now do.

If BBC staff want unofficial personal blogs then obviously it’s up to them to find a place to put that off-site.

Have you ever thought about creating an ebook or guest authoring on other websites? I have a blog based upon on the same ideas you discuss and would really like to have you share some stories/information. I know my subscribers would appreciate your work. If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an email.